The U.S. Congress on Friday certified the Electoral College vote that gave Republican Donald Trump his victory in the contentious 2016
presidential election after a raucous half-hour joint session punctuated by Democratic challenges.

The Republican businessman, whose presidential campaign was his first bid for public office, garnered 304 electoral votes, compared with 227 won by
his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, according to the vote tally read by Vice President Joe Biden.

The electoral votes were opened before a joint session of Congress in what is considered a formality for most presidential elections.

Members of the House of Representatives objected to the electoral tally in states including Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Mississippi and the
Carolinas in a symbolic move that exposed lingering dismay over a contentious election campaign.

A group of House Democrats on Friday tried to derail the certification of the Electoral College that formalized the election of Donald Trump as
the 45th president.

Vice President Joe Biden, who presided over the joint session of Congress, refused to accept the objections, since any protest must be in writing and
signed by members of both the House and Senate. No Senate Democrat joined in.

a reply to: xuenchen
I was looking for a live presentation, and eventually found a text summary from C-Span. It seems to have been half an hour of Biden saying repeatedly
that objections were only admissable in writing, and if they had nothing in writing he would move on. In other words, the objectors were not taking
the matter seriously enough to meet the requirements (or give up the business when they realised that they couldn't). They were just playing silly
games for the benefit of the audience.
Would they really want a semi-parliamentary system, with every President being chosen, in effect, by the current majority in Congress?

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: xuenchen
I was looking for a live presentation, and eventually found a text summary from C-Span. It seems to have been half an hour of Biden saying repeatedly
that objections were only admissable in writing, and if they had nothing in writing he would move on. In other words, the objectors were not taking
the matter seriously enough to meet the requirements (or give up the business when they realised that they couldn't). They were just playing silly
games for the benefit of the audience.
Would they really want a semi-parliamentary system, with every President being chosen, in effect, by the current majority in Congress?

Correct. Objections must be in writing and signed by at least one Senator and one Representative.

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